Rowan Salem, MFA, is a dance artist and educator originally from Massachusetts, currently based in Ohio. Rowan earned a Masters of Fine Arts in Choreography and Performance as a Teaching Fellow/Gretchen Moran Scholar at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Her work incorporates compositional improvisation and exploring perspective shifts through choreography and performance. She has performed in the work of Jennifer Nugent, Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, Tara Rynders, and Kate Speer. Her work has been presented at Green Street Studios in Boston, MA, The Dance Complex in Boston, MA, Third Life Studios in Cambridge, MA, Lesley University in Boston, MA, The School for Contemporary Dance and Thought in Northampton, MA, Smith College, Amherst College, Control Group Productions in Denver, CO, Mutual Dance Theater in Cincinnati, OH and she was a Create Award Resident at Art Gym in Denver, CO. She is a recipient of ArtsWave’s 2023 Black and Brown artists grant for her work, Viewpoints Embodied: Middle Eastern Voices in Cincinnati. Her teaching is influenced by Humphrey/Limón technique, contact improvisation, and contemporary forms. Current teaching affiliations include Xavier University, Northern Kentucky University, and Cincinnati Ballet Academy.
Teresa VanDenend Sorge, EdM is a dancer, dance educator and Founding Director of Koresh Kids Dance. An outreach initiative of Koresh Dance Company, Koresh Kids Dance serves nearly 500 Philadelphia public school children each week. For nearly a decade she was a full-time lecturer at Muhlenberg College in the department of Theatre and Dance specializing in dance education and developing a dance education laboratory. She remains a part time lecturer at Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadelphia using creative dance and choreographic practices to encourage empathy and kinesthetic awareness for medical students. Teresa recently moved to Cincinnati where she teaches dance at NKU, Xavier and Miami Valley Ballet Theatre. Teresa’s choreography and scholarship has been shared at multiple venues and in many community settings, including the Cincy Fringe Festival, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, The Cincinnati Art Museum, the Mayo Clinic, Northern Kentucky University, National Guild for Community Arts Education, Arts and Literacy Conference at UPenn, and the National Dance Education Organization annual conference. Teresa attended Anne Green Gilbert’s SDIT, as well as the Institute for Restorative Arts with Buildabridge International, where she served as teaching faculty and Artist on Call. Teresa holds a Master of Education in Dance degree from Temple University and a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.